1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems for communicating over computer networks and, more particularly, to systems allowing for telephonic communication over computer networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer networks interconnecting a large number of computers owned by different users are proliferating at an ever accelerating rate. One extremely popular and well known network is the Internet which links many hundreds of thousands of computers owned by almost as many businesses, educational institutions, governmental agencies, and individuals.
There has been much interest of late in using the Internet and other computer networks to conduct long-distance telephone conversations. The advantage of using the computer networks in this fashion involves avoiding using the conventional long-distance telephone network, and incurring telephone company charges.
Such efforts commonly have involved the use of a software package installed on a personal computer (PC) equipped with a sound card, microphone, and speakers enabling the PC to produce audible sounds, such as audible sounds encoded on CD-ROM (compact disk--read-only memory) disks which are placed in CD-ROM disk drives in certain personal computers. The software package allows a first user of a PC to employ the sound card, microphone, and speakers as the equivalent of a telephone, with the sound card, microphone, and speakers either receiving the first user's voice for transmission to a second user with whom the first user is conversing or transmitting the second user's voice to the first user. Some versions of such software allow only half duplex use, or in other words, either conversant may either talk or listen, but not both simultaneously, but more recent versions allow full duplex use equivalent to conventional telephone communications where conversants may talk and listen simultaneously. Such software includes "Internet Phone" produced by VocalTec Inc., of Northvale, N.J., "WebTalk" produced by Quarterdeck Corp. of Santa Monica, Calif., and "WebPhone" produced by NetSpeak Corporation of Boca Raton, Fla.
The audio signal in appropriate digital form travelling over the Internet from a PC will normally enter the Internet just like any other digital data through a local Internet Service Provider (ISP). The appropriate digital form will be in groups of digital information known as packets, each packet containing both the data representing the audio signal and control information telling the Internet what to do with the packet. Since these ISPs exist worldwide as "gateways" to the Internet, persons with PCs connected to the Internet can conduct telephone conversations at no added cost over the access charges paid to their ISP. Because of poor voice quality, delays, and lost connections experienced during Internet conversations, special servers have been or will be installed at many ISPs to handle the increase in Internet traffic due to Internet voice communications.
One callback and Internet access provider, International Discount Telecommunications Corp. (IDT) of Hackensack, N.J., has demonstrated a prototype that purportedly allows a PC anywhere in the world having enough memory, a microphone, speakers, a sound card, and an DT account to be connected to a telephone in the United States.
Despite the rapid advances and improvements in Internet telephony, several disadvantages remain. The participants in any such conversation all require PCs to conduct a conversation, all of the PCs must be connected to the Internet for the conversation to begin, and all of the PCs must have the same Internet telephony software as no software package currently being marketed is compatible with any other package. The IDT prototype requires one PC with peripherals online for a conversation to occur.
In addition, the sound cards and speakers as well as insufficient PC memory cause communication problems. For example, frequent volume adjustment to the speakers is necessary on both ends of the communications link to obtain audible communication and control of background noises.
The present invention eliminates or makes substantial progress in overcoming these disadvantages.